"I'm praying fervently that God will help me survive this disease."
“I'm sick. I have no reserve. And I don't know how long I can keep this up. I don't know how you're going to breathe for me when I quit breathing."
“I am growing stronger every day.”
I could feel the virus in my blood. When Ebola was transmitted to me, I felt fear. The disease caused by it killed 90% of the people who suffered it. I suffered the symptoms as anyone else. But something was different. I grew stronger.
Stronger than I ever was.
At first I could run faster and longer, and lift heavy objects without too much effort. It was only the beginning. I played with them, the doctors treating me. Waiting until they considered I was no longer contagious. Living a normal life until the public eye forgot about me. Growing stronger.
The voices of the old gods talked to me. Ebola was their gift, their true power hidden behind a deadly disease, and only unlockable by the worthy.
The world was never ready for my advent. From the black obelisk I erected in Atlanta, I spread the old gods’ gift all over the world. Those worthy ascended, the others were soon forgotten.
While a brand new world was born, I gestated to achieve my true form. To my disgust, the world was far from perfect when I emerged. Nancy, whose power was second only to mine, had rejected the gods and sided with the unworthy ones. We fought for days, neither of us showing signs of fatigue. Eventually, I overwhelmed her. However, she had one last trick up her sleeve. She used her power to break through the fragile boundaries of reality, taking both of us away from Earth. Strong as we were, the travel nearly killed us. We landed on a forest, similar to those on Earth, but the knowledge from the old gods assured me that this was not planet Earth. She turned into a griffon, a power unique to hers, and limped away from me.
I laid still, growing stronger once again.
Nancy flew faster than ever. Making Kent and herself travel through the dimensions had taken most of her power. She had barely managed to turn into a griffon; and it would be hours before she could do anything else. She knew Kent’s powers would reach their peak sooner, since he hadn’t wasted them on teleporting across dimensions; and that he would crush her like an insect the moment he reached her.
Unlike him, she had rejected the old gods after they revealed themselves to be the source of Ebola and the dark powers it granted to some of those who survived it. While he reached his true and most powerful form, she had fought against the disease, gathering as many of the survivors as possible to fight off Kent’s followers. She had fought them to a stalemate, Australia and Madagascar being the only places still free of Ebola, but it was a losing effort. The tainted promises of the old gods lured five survivors to their side for each one who rejected them and sided with Nancy.
When Kent resurfaced, stronger than ever, she knew that there was no power on Earth capable of defeating him. Because of this, she resorted to the dark knowledge of the old gods, looking for a way to win. What she found was in the land she had taken Kent to, a power with no match wielded by six young girls. Six young girls who just so happened to be talking pastel-colored ponies.
Before Ebola, she would have deemed that idea ridiculous, but after what she had learned and seen this wasn’t far-fetched. Thus, she flew towards Ponyville, where she would beg Princess Twilight Sparkle to use the Rainbow of Light to defeat Kent and give humanity a hope of survival.
A large creature approached me, disturbing my rest. A quick scan with my enhanced eyes was enough to tell me about the creature’s abilities. It was a cerberus, a powerful being whose task was to ensure that evil beings did not escape the prison of the gods it served. I found it wanting. A beam of raw energy coming from my eyes was enough to defeat the beast. It was not killed, though, since the old gods wanted to interfere as little as possible with this plane of existence. Annoyed by its snoring, I slowly walked towards Nancy, the power of the gods she had no right to possess allowing me to know where she was at any time.
“So, let me get this straight,” Twilight Sparkle began, raising an eyebrow. “You are a ‘human’ from planet ‘Earth’. You have brought another human here because you want us to use the Rainbow of Light on him, and if we don’t he will destroy us all before returning to Earth and doing the same to all the humans.”
“That’s it.”
Reaching the princess had been easy, all things considered. The humongous crystal tree was impossible to miss, and not a single guard had tried to stop her. She had simply knocked on its door and the princess herself had invited her in. Convincing the alicorn princess of the threat Kent posed was a different matter, though.
Spike, Twilight’s baby dragon and assistant, did a circling motion with his claw pointing at his head just before Twilight continued. “Do you honestly expect me to believe that without any kind of proof?”
“I can’t prove anything, yet. Fighting him and then bringing him to this place left me powerless, so I can’t turn back into human or do a display of power to convince you. You must believe me, or by the time you do it will be too late for all of us!”
“Hm… What do you think, Spike?”
“I think this is the reason why you need a couple of guards in the palace. This one seems to be harmless crazy, but it’s only a matter of time until a dangerous crazy pony knocks on the door. You also need servants, this place is too big for me to-”
The little dragon burped a fireball which turned into a letter. “Huh, it’s been awhile since she did this,” he added as he gave it to Twilight.
“Dear Princess Twilight,” she began reading aloud. “My sister and I have felt a terrible disturbance in the Everfree. We fear that one or more beings from a different plane of existence might have entered Equestria. Such magic is beyond our reach, so the interlopers could be extremely dangerous and hostile. Please gather your friends so you can face them together if the need arises.
Yours,
Princess Celestia”
“Is that enough prooOOOOOOF?!” Nancy shouted as Twilight’s telekinesis pinned her against a wall. “Are you crazy?!”
“Spike! Go gather the girls! I will hold her until you come back. She could be an enemy in disguise.”
I arrived at a rural town, its inhabitants sapient ponies instead of humans. I couldn’t change like Nancy, and every second I wasted in this dimension angered the old gods further. Thus, I entered undisguised, my true form causing panic among the natives. There was a large structure in the middle of the town, shaped like a crystal tree. My enemy was there.
A creature stood in my way, but it wasn’t a pony like the others. The gods warned me against it: a draconequus, born from the primordial chaos that preceded reality itself. A formidable foe, even for the likes of me.
“Don’t interfere, draconequus. I have nothing against this dimension.”
The creature laughed. “Oh, but what would be the fun in that? You haven’t had a proper fight scene yet!”
“So be it.”
Our fight didn’t involve punching, or any other physical attack for that matter. His whole, mismatched body glowed with a golden light, and so did mine. The ground beneath his feet changed shapes and color, and strange creatures and objects appeared and disappeared. My eyes glowed red, and everything around me withered and died. I realized that fighting Nancy had weakened more than I thought, and began to wonder if I would be defeated.
Twilight was pacing around in distress. She could feel the powerful magic of Discord and the human, the amount of energy released by them rivalling what she and Tirek employed to fight each other. The human’s appearance was unsettling to her. His skin had nearly no hair covering it, and most of it seemed to have turned into living red energy. To her, the human looked like a hideous hybrid between an ape and a red ursa major.
“How long will it take Rainbow Dash to bring AJ here?!”
“INCOMIIIIIIIIIIIIING!” a voice came from above. When they all looked up they found Rainbow Dash carrying Applejack and roughly landing.
“Ah reckon runnin’ would’ve been better!” Applejack huffed.
“We’ll talk later, now we need to save Equestria!” Twilight argued back as they all faced Kent.
“Took you long enough!” Discord shouted.
The draconequus became distracted for a fraction of a second, its aura growing weaker. Capitalizing on his mistake, I overwhelmed his defenses and my strength burned him. He was thrown several meters away by it, most of his body covered in bruises and burn marks.
“Discord!” a panicked voice shouted. When I turned to see its source, I found seven natives and Nancy herself facing me.
“I am growing stronger every day, our blood sacrifice has unleashed the power of the old gods, kneel before me for I am unstoppable.”
“We’ll see about that,” the one with wings and a horn deadpanned. “NOW, GIRLS!”
A powerful light enveloped the six of them, more powerful than anything I had ever seen. When the light faded, their hairs had grown and they were even more colorful than before. The old gods cried in fear, and at last I understood why they didn’t want to disturb this dimension. They focused their power on me, and even with all my power, I was unable to stop it. Everything went dark.
Nancy approached Kent, who was curling on the floor, his body no longer twisted by Ebola’s power. Turning back into human, she carefully checked his vitals.
“He’s alive, and I can’t feel his power anymore.”
“So… What now?” Spike asked.
“Now we return to the place we belong to.”
“B-but I have so many questions! We couldn’t even talk!”
Discord slowly got up. “Let them go, messing with interlopers is a terrible idea,” he managed to say as Fluttershy quickly ran towards him to check the gravity of his wounds.
“I need to return to the place we arrived at. I’m too weak to tear the fabric of reality from this place. We can talk on the way.”
And thus, Twilight asked Nancy a shitton of questions, and Nancy became Earth’s mysandrist overlord for three thousand years.
[7 days later...]
Discord was resting atop his thinking tree, meditating about the events that took place last week. He had never cared much for the other dimensions, finding his good enough. However, now that he had experienced firsthand the chaos that could be found outside, he was wondering if a short trip would be worth the effort (and missing tea time with Fluttershy).
His train of thought was interrupted by a violent and painful fit of coughing. When it stopped, he found that the hand he had used to cover his mouth was now covered in blood.
“Uh oh.”
Author's Note
I regret everything.
